Boston — About midway through the second half of Syracuse's game at Boston College on Monday, it looked like an old Big East rival would hand the Orange its first loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference — and the season.

Syracuse trailed 50-44 after BC's Lonnie Jackson hit his six 3-pointer of the game.
The Orange looked staggered. Jackson was 6-of-9 from 3-point range and the Eagles were 8-for-15 from beyond the arc. Syracuse couldn't cover all of BC's shooters.

C.J. Fair, Syracuse's leading scorer, had just six points. Rakeem Christmas was on the bench with four fouls and SU forward Jerami Grant was on the court with four of his own.

The 8,606 fans inside the sold-out Conte Forum, at least those not wearing orange in the arena's upper-tier, were jumping at the thought of the Eagles knocking off the 2nd-ranked Orange.

Then from out of nowhere, Syracuse went on a 16-1 run.

"We've been down in the second half a number of times this year,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "When we've been in that situation, guys make plays. Somebody makes a play.''

Syracuse got the ball to C.J. Fair, its senior leader and leading scorer. Fair had struggled for most of the night, but he connected on a 15-foot jumper that seemed to spark the Orange.

The Orange held Boston College without a field goal for over 11 minutes from Jackson's 3-pointer with 11:57 left until Eddie Odio's dunk with 43 seconds remaining.

"I think defense really gets us going,'' said Trevor Cooney, who led Syracuse with 21 points. "A steal here or a deflection there just gives this team so much momentum. We were able to do that during that stretch when we went on a pretty good run.''

Cooney's 3-pointer with six minutes left completed Syracuse's 16-1 run. Syracuse led 60-51 and the Orange held on from there, hitting seven out of eight free throws in the game's final minute for a 69-59 victory over Boston College.

It was the first meeting between the two former Big East rivals since the 2004-05 season, which was BC's last in the Big East.

Syracuse improved to 17-0 for the season and 4-0 in the ACC. Boston College fell to 5-12 overall and 1-3 in the conference. Syracuse is off to a 17-0 start in a season for the fourth time in school history, including three of the last four years. Syracuse is one of just four teams that remain undefeated, joining Arizona, Wisconsin and Wichita State.

Syracuse struggled all night offensively except for that 5-minute period when the Orange went on its 16-1 run.

The Orange managed just 32 first-half points, but eight of those came off steals that resulted in breakaway dunks. Syracuse made 45 percent of its shots, going 24-for-53 from the field, but that was due to an outstanding rebounding effort. The Orange grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, which turned into 17 second-chance points.

"We were as bad offensively as we've been all year,'' Boeheim said. "I think part of that was Boston College played very well defensively.''

Aside from Cooney's 21-point effort, Syracuse got 16 points and eight rebounds from Jerami Grant. Fair had 12 points despite shooting 4-for-13 from the field. Tyler Ennis also wound up with 12 points plus five assists and a season-high six steals.

"I think it was just confidence,'' Ennis said of the Orange's come-from-behind win. "Keep doing what we do. Staying to our game-plan and getting the right guys the ball. Sooner or later, we knew we were going to make shots.''

Boston College out-shot Syracuse from the field and the 3-point line, but the Orange fared better at the foul line. The Eagles were 17-for-34 from the field and 9-of-21 from 3-point range.

But Boston College, which ranks third in the country in free-throw shooting, made just 16 out of 26 foul shots. Meanwhile, Syracuse went 17-for-21 at the line.

Boston College also turned the ball over 16 times.

"I was real proud of our effort,'' Boston College coach Steve Donahue said. "We really followed the game-plan and we really fought hard and competed. We had a couple bad spurts, but that's a credit to Syracuse and what they bring to the table. A couple of those spurts just really hurt us.''

Ennis gave Syracuse a 35-30 lead with a 3-pointer to start the second half, but Boston College went on a 15-2 run to take a 45-37 lead.

The Eagles' rally included three 3-point shots for BC and two timeouts by Boeheim. Jackson hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game with 11:57 left. The 6-foot-3 junior had 18 points at that juncture.

"We knew from the last game that the guy could shoot the ball,'' Boeheim said, referring to Jackson's 17-point game against Virginia Tech on Saturday. "We just didn't find him. Part of it was we were trapping and we had good traps and they made two great plays to get out of the traps. And not only get out of the traps, but get him the ball on a crosscourt, pressured pass.''

But Jackson would not score for the rest of the game. In fact, he would not get another 3-point shot.

"They played us tough,'' Ennis said. "They made a lot of shots. Luckily, some of the shots they took at the end didn't drop.''